You need to bury your head in the ground like an ostrich to think that the scourge of Communism has never affected or harmed India. Only a couple of days ago, the national anthem was played in the Tripura Legislative Assembly for the first time, as the newly elected members took their seats.

If nationalism, as the historian Jack Gallagher was fond of quipping, devours its parents, communism consumes its own ideology. Communism was born under the sign of internationalism. The project of world revolution did not recognize national boundaries. Thus, it is funny to see Indian communists today positioning themselves as great protectors of national sovereignty.

Indian communists have always had a very uncomfortable relationship with nationalism. Some of the major debates and divisions within the Communist Party of India have revolved around the question of nationalism and the national movement. And, if the truth be told, these debates do not exactly hold up the comrades in an edifying light. On the scorecard of nationalism, the performance of Indian communists is poor to say the least. (On internationalism, their score is irrelevant, since a world communist revolution is not even a pipe dream after the collapse of socialism and the exposure of the many crimes of the socialist regimes in Soviet Russia, in Eastern Europe, in China, in Albania, under Pol Pot in Cambodia and so on.)

To begin with the most notorious example that communists have never been able to live down: 1942. The CPI was officially against the Quit India movement. What needs to be emphasized here is that this decision of the CPI was not based on any understanding of the Indian situation by Indian communists. The opposition to the clarion call of 1942 was the outcome of a diktat emanating from Moscow. When Hitler attacked his erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union, in 1941, the fight against Nazism overnight became a People’s War for all communists. The directive from Moscow was carried by Achhar Singh Chinna, alias Larkin, who travelled from the Soviet Union to India with the full knowledge of the British authorities. In India, it meant communists had to isolate themselves from the mainstream of national life and politics and see British rule as a friendly force since the communists’ “fatherland”, Soviet Russia, was an ally of Britain. A critical decision affecting the strategic and the tactical line of the party was thus taken defying national interests at the behest of a foreign power, whose orders determined the positions and actions of the CPI.

The Communist Party of India is one of the most controversial political parties in the country. Founded in 1925, CPI is alleged to have been directly involved in several anti-national activities since its inception. 

Though misleading articles from leftist sources claim CPI fought for India’s independence from the British rule, the truth cannot be further away from this claim. 

Let’s take a look at the shameless history of the Communist party

The Communists called Subash Chandra Bose a ‘dog of Japanese General Tojo’

During the Second World War, when freedom fighter Subash Chandra Bose was attempting to build an international alliance to counter the British empire with a pursuit to free India of British rule, the mouthpiece of the undivided CPI ‘People’s War’ published sketches of Subash Chandra Bose being led by General Tojo by holding his hand. Another illustration from the same magazine showed Bose being thrown in a circus by a man donning the Nazi Hakenkreuz.

This was because the USSR was fighting against Germany and Japan at two fronts while Bose lobbied with the two countries to overthrow the British from India. CPI had compromised its integrity to lick the boots of the Soviets, from whom they allegedly received funds even after India’s independence according to former KGB agent Mitrokhin’s Archives.

Ordered party cadre not to donate blood to Indian Army

During the 1962 war between India and China, the Indian Communist parties issued a diktat to their party cadre that they shouldn’t donate blood to Indian soldiers. Several Communist leaders had backed China during the war and supported the country’s stance. 

Openly said ‘China’s Chairman is our Chairman’

Merely 8 years after the Indo-China war, the Left front in India put posters all over West Bengal which said ‘China’s Chairman is our Chairman’, very openly showing their allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Mao Zedong. 

Despite hostilities arising between the two nations in 1970s, the Communists seemed to have very openly challenged the nation’s patriotic sentiments. 

Received funds from USSR and China

A declassified report from the CIA reveals that the CPI and breakaway CPI (M) were funded directly by China and USSR respectively. 

The two parties received funds “through a combination of kickback schemes, normal business transactions and direct cash payments”.

“In addition to party funding, the Soviets channel money to individual Congress and opposition politicians (through) clandestine payments. This cash is reportedly obtained from the favourable Soviet trade balance,” said the document titled “The Soviets in India”, which is one of the millions of CIA memos declassified in 2011.

Mitrokhin Archives allege that CPI and CPIM received funds through several bizarre ways during the cold war, including through car windows during Delhi traffic!

At several instances, India’s Intelligence Bureau intercepted transfer of funds from USSR to CPI during the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. However, these were given a blind eye by the former Prime Minister and such activities continued till the fall of USSR.

Marad Massacre of Hindus in Kerela

On the Marad beach of Kozhikode in Kerala, 8 Hindus were murdered by 62 Muslim workers belonging to CPI (M), Popular Front of India and Indian Union Muslim League. The attackers hacked the innocent Hindus in broad daylight and then proceeded to hurl bombs and other explosives at nearby areas. 

Sitaram Yechury attended a conference organized by CCP

In October 2015, Sitaram Yechury (President of CPIM) visited the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) organized by CCP in China. In the meeting, Yechury said that the Communist Party of India (M) values ties with the Chinese Communist Party. He even went on to discuss the foreign policy and economic policy of India with Chinese officials. 

No condemnation of China after Galwan Valley clash

After the violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley of Ladakh, the CPIM issued a statement which did not condemn the Chinese aggression in the area. In fact, the party blamed India for the clashes through its mouthpiece. 

“Whatever egregious actions by China, the positions adopted by the Government of India have also contributed to such a situation developing,” the editorial stated.

The editorial magazine also blamed the Union government’s increased leaning towards USA as the reason behind the clashes and worsening bilateral relations. 

India’s communist parties have started to lose their autonomy and are slowly becoming puppets of China. It has had a long history of being funded by foreign countries and has continued this trend. With each passing day, the Communist parties of India are proving that they are nothing more than mouthpieces of their bosses in Beijing.

References:

https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/chinas-chairman-is-our-chairman-why-china-will-forever-haunt-cpim
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/cpim-editorial-blames-india-for-ongoing-border-dispute-with-china
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/62-get-life-term-for-marad-killings/411268
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/yechurys-call-on-xi-jinping-signals-strong-cpccpi-m-ties/article7783317.ece